There was a featured post last week asking the question, do you make friends with your clients and remain friends after closing? A lot of agents, well, most of the agents said yes, they do make and keep the friendships after closing.

1. Do You Really Make Friends With All Your
Clients?
There was a featured post last week asking the
question, do you make friends with your clients and
remain friends after closing? A lot of agents, well, most
of the agents said yes, they do make and keep the
friendships after
closing.
This response made me ponder how many of our
clients actually become our friends. The first thing
that must be defined before one can properly
answer this question is-
"what is a friend?"

2. What is your definition of a friend?
 Is a friend a person you go out to dinner with
or you only make a call to them once a year?
 Is a friend a person you call to cry on their
shoulder and vent and let it all hang out?
 Is a friend a person with whom you trust your
secrets with?
 Or is a friend someone who just friends you on
facebook?
Because I think that these days the term
"friend" is used quite loosely. What comes to
my mind when agents say they make friends with
most of their clients after closing is that these
agents must have a lot of time on their hands.
How many "friends" can you have at the end
of the day truthfully and still really be
"friends"? How many times do you call on your
friends and go out with them or meet them for
lunch. Let's say you meet a friend a day for lunch,
well, that is only 30 friends. So that would mean
that you could have 30 friends if you define a
friend as someone you go out to lunch with once a
month. So what happens when you have more
than 30 closings in a year?

3. So the next question that came to my mind is
how many houses are you selling? How many
listings are you selling?
If you only have one listing a year that you sell
and about 5 to 7 buyers a year to sell a house to
then I could conceivably believe that you can turn
those clients into friends and maintain a
meaningful relationship with each of them.
But like Nestor says, we are hired to do a job and
that is to market and sell our listings not
necessarily to become friends. In fact, our clients
don't even have to like us, they just need to know
that we know how to sell their property. Of course,
there are people who are our clients and have
become our friends over the years. I am not saying
we don't make friends with our clients. What I am
saying is that when you carry a lot of listings it is
not a practical goal to have.
The reality in our markets here in Florida is
that it is a very transient state. Even in our
Church, families move in and families move out
frequently to other states. Most of our sellers who
are short sellers we have never even met. Most of
them are out of state sellers who have a second
home here or investment properties here in Florida
or they have relocated for a job in another state.
We are not likely going to get many referrals from

4. many of these clients because they are not the
kind of people who are going to go around showing
off that they lost their shirts in a short sale or that
they had financial hardships. Not something to
really be tooting your horn about if you know what
I mean. We do get a lot of referrals from our
clients but not all of them will be apt to discuss
real estate for a while.
Then there is your life. You have a life outside of
real estate. I wonder about the agents who make
friends with almost every client. Does that mean
the agent is single or has no family? No kids? No
spouse?
Because after work, family, church and
community involvement- how much time is
really left to go and hang out with all those friends
you made by selling all those houses you sold?
Since family is where and who we spend most of
our time with- we have 9 children and 8 of them
are grown ups- there is not a lot of time left in the
day for chatting and going out to events with
friends. Those relationships are more important to
us than friendships outside of our family. Heck, we
are so busy with the going ons with our family
right now that I have not even spoken to my very
best friend in over a month.

5. Perhaps a better term for all these friends
agents are making would be
"acquaintances"?
Copyright © by Katerina Gasset 2011* ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
*Do You Really Make Friends With All Your Clients?*

6. Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset- Realtors®, CIPS,
ABR, SFR, GRI, REOS
International Properties & Investments, Inc
Call us today at 561-753-0135 to get your
house sold.
Authors of Short Sales Success
Wellington Florida Short Sales | Wellington Fl Short
Sales | Wellington REO Servicers
Wellington Short Sale Agents | Video Tutorials About
Wellington Short Sales
Search Wellington Fl Homes For Sale | Wellington Equestrian
Properties For Sale |
Wellington Luxury Homes | YouTube Listings and Short
Sales |Wellington Fl Short Sale Agent